The story takes place in Indochina, during the last days of the French presence. The war for Vietnam's independence has been raging for years and the French are losing. Thomas Fowler is an aging and emotionally detached British journalist who treats his assignment in Saigon as a way to live in lazy self-indulgence, far from his wife and his boss; he has taken up a much younger Vietnamese girl, Phuong, as a mistress. He one day meets Alden Pyle, a young and idealistic American expatriate, ostensibly in Vietnam with a medical mission. Pyle begins to compete with Fowler for the attention of Phuong.

Contains examples of:

But I Read a Book About It: Fowler is irritated with Pyle in part because the latter relies entirely too much on what the "experts" say and doesn't seem to value Fowler's practical experience.

Eagle Land: An especially harsh mixed instance of this. Pyle is indeed a mostly-innocent idealist, but he's also ignorantly changing things in a situation he barely understands, woefully out of his depth, and ultimately starts abetting horrible crimes in the service of empty ideas of "democracy," hurting the ordinary people of Vietnam.

Neutral No Longer: Fowler is a fairly cynical reporter who doesn't choose between the Communist North and the South Vietnamese puppet dictators, wishing that common people prosper instead. But a situation does come when he must make a choice:

"Sooner or later...one has to take sides - if one is to remain human."

Examples specific to the 1958 film adaptation:

Adaptational Heroism: Pyle is a genuine aid worker and is not involved in supplying plastics for bomb manufacturing.

Fowler does not have an opium addiction, unlike in the novel.

Alone in a Crowd: The film ends with a distraught Fowler rejecting Vigot's offer to drive past the church for solace and instead walking away through the festive crowd, where he is soon lost from view.

Did Not Get the Girl: Contrary to the original novel and the 2002 film adaptation, Fowler does not get Phuong at the end.

The Film of the Book: This adaptation completely changed the message of the story, assuming that Pyle couldn't possibly be a Villain since a) he was American and b) he had good intentions. It may actually have been a deliberate Take That to Graham Greene: Edward Lansdale, who might have been the inspiration for Pyle, was involved in the script.

Heroic B.S.O.D.: Fowler falls into this mode from the moment Phuong leaves him, and it only gets worse and worse. Michael Redgrave portrays the growing lifelessness in Fowler's eyes to perfection.

Karma Houdini: Averted in this adaptation. Fowler's path to happiness might be clear after Pyle's death, but Phuong won't come back to him and he is left wishing there was someone to whom he could say sorry.

One Head Taller: A non-romantic variation: there is a scene in the middle of the movie where Fowler walks through a crowded Vietnamese street. Fowler, played by the 6' 3'' Redgrave, is conspicuously head and shoulders above all the local extras used in the shot.

The Film of the Book: This second adaptation was much closer to the original. If anything, it goes the complete other direction to the 1958 film; amongst other things, it adds a scene where Pyle's Vietnamese allies massacre villagers For the Evulz and changes Pyle's character to make him rather less sympathetic.

Ironic Echo: Pyle is ostensibly in Vietnam to cure and prevent trachoma, an illness which causes blindness. The final image in the film is of an American soldier in Vietnam blinded after battle.

Obfuscating Stupidity: Pyle is smarter than he lets on, and although he feigns not to speak Vietnamese, he is in fact fluent in it. (This scene is only in the second film. The novel suggests that Pyle was genuinely far out of his depth.)

Pull the Thread: Subverted - the police commander in the 2002 film adaptation correctly notes some discrepancies in Fowler's account of the events leading to Pyle's death (even catching him out on an I Never Said It Was Poison in the opening scene, when Fowler assumes Pyle is dead before the commander had even mentioned it), but Fowler's involvement is never proven and he gets away scot free.

"Where Are They Now?" Epilogue: The epilogue in the 2002 film displays newspaper articles written by Fowler in the years after Pyle's death, as the Americans begin to deploy troops in Vietnam and the war escalates.

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